This invention relates to a baking pan and the like and to a method for baking food products therein. More specifically, this invention relates to a baking pan and a method for rapidly baking food products therein in an impingement type of oven.
In the fast food restaurant business, the speed at which food can be prepared is extremely important. Both the operators of fast food restaurants and the diners wish to have the food prepared in a short amount of time so that the amount of time a diner needs to wait for his food is relatively short. However, the speed at which the food is prepared should not detract from the quality of the food. Therefore, it is desirable to provide high quality food in a minimum amount of time.
With the popularity of pizza as a fast food, a number of different types of pizzas have become popular. In addition to the standard or conventional thin crust pizza, a number of deep dish pizzas have become available. These pizzas are in effect stuffed pizzas having a crust, and including various cheeses, vegetables, meats, and toppings. In addition, these pizzas sometimes contain another layer of crust with a further layer of cheese on top of that crust layer. If conventional equipment were used to bake the new type of pizzas in conventional pans, the time needed to properly prepare the pizzas would be longer than is desirable. On the other hand it is desirable to use standard conventional oven equipment to prepare the new stuffed type of pizzas since this would avoid the expense of purchasing new ovens. Furthermore, restaurant owners frequently wish to use only a single oven for preparing both conventional pizzas and the new type of pizzas at the same time. Thus, an oven might have in it at the same time one or more of the conventional pizzas and one or more of the new type of stuffed pizzas. It is therefore desirable to use a conventional oven for the preparation of stuffed pizzas.
A method which has been used successfully for preparing food products such as pizzas is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,861. The method utilizes an impingement type of oven wherein a conveyor belt travels through an oven cavity and on which the containers with the food products are located. Columns of hot air are directed at the containers to bake the food products and to carry away moisture and other particles resulting from the cooking process. This method has been used commercially by many pizza establishments. Since the ovens which use this baking method have been designed so that the baking process is properly balanced in terms of the temperature of the hot air and the speed of the conveyor belt, it is desirable that a pan for baking a stuffed pizza or other food product in an impingement type of oven is designed in such a way as to be compatible with this type of oven.
Conventional cookware has been found to be inadequate for baking stuffed pizzas in an impingement type of oven because the baking time for baking a stuffed pizza in a conventional pan is too long, namely about 13 minutes, whereas the baking time for a conventional pizza in a conventional pan is approximately 8 minutes. It has therefore not been possible to use the same oven for simultaneously and concurrently baking a conventional or standard pizza product and a stuffed pizza product in an impingement oven.
One of the problems in cooking pizza is to rapidly bring the temperature of the center of the pizza below the top crust layer up to the proper temperature level which is somewhere in the range of 150.degree. F. to 165.degree. F. In an impingement oven the heat is applied to the top, sides and bottom of the pizza product and from those surfaces the heat travels inwardly by conduction into the pizza product. Therefore, a temperature gradient will be set up throughout the pizza. If too much heat is applied to the surfaces of the pizza, the temperature gradients in the pizza will be too high so that the surfaces of the pizza will cook too rapidly and will be subject to burning prior to proper cooking of the interior of the pizza. On the other hand, if too little heat is applied to the surfaces of the pizza the interior of the pizza product will be uncooked, thus causing undesirable quality of the finished product. The entire process therefore must be properly balanced to set up the proper temperature gradients within the product in an acceptable amount of time. It is therefore desired to provide a pizza pan for use with an impingement oven which enables the proper temperatures and temperature gradiants to be provided in a stuffed pizza in a minimum amount of time.
One additional problem which has been found with pizzas is that the cheese located on the top of the product melts at elevated temperatures and tends to form a seal, thus preventing further rapid addition of heat through the top surface of the pizza to aid in cooking the pizza product. Therefore, most of the heat for baking a pizza rapidly must be applied to the bottom of the pizza product. It is therefore desired to provide a pizza pan for use with an impingement oven wherein most of the heat is supplied through the bottom of the pan.
One further problem which has been encountered in baking pizzas of this type is that some of the baking takes place after the pizza has left the oven because the pan in which the pizza is contained will retain heat and continue to give up this heat to the pizza product. Therefore, if the thickness of the pan is too great, the product will continue to bake too long after it leaves the oven and become overcooked. On the other hand, if the thickness of the pan is too small, the baking process will stop too soon after the product leaves the oven, thereby leaving the pizza product undercooked.
Additionally, if too thick a pan material is used, it is not possible to heat the pan material up in a sufficiently short amount of time after the pan enters the oven to allow the pizza to be baked in the desired amount of time. On the other hand, if too thin a pan material is used, heat is given up too rapidly by the pan material to the pizza and not enough heat is stored in the pan to allow the crust of the pizza to be browned properly by the pan after the pizza leaves the oven. It is therefore desired to provide a pizza pan for preparing a stuffed pizza in an impingement oven wherein the thickness of the pan material is adequate to permit proper preparation of the pizza.
U.S Pat. No. 4,378,729 discloses a pan for preparing pizza wherein a blast of hot air is funneled through a central vent opening in a baffle and wherein the pizza is located on a number of risers so that it is exposed directly to the hot air. The problem with this structure is that too much heat is applied directly to the pizza product, thus tending to overcook the bottom surface of the pizza while the pizza is in the oven. Furthermore, the baking process stops as soon as the pizza leaves the oven because there is no hot metal surrounding the pizza product to give off further heat to the pizza product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,243 discloses a method for preparing pizza wherein a crust is first precooked and the remaining ingredients are then placed in the precooked shell whereafter the pizza is placed in a perforated pan and cooked in a forced air oven. This two-step process is also undesirable because of the amount of time taken to prepare a pizza in this manner.
It is furthermore desired to provide a baking pan and a method for baking a food product such as a stuffed pizza wherein a high quality food product is baked in a minimum amount of time in an impingement type of oven.